Anthony Bourdain on smug liberals and eating dogs.

AuthorBisley, Alexander
PositionInterview

Culinary cable celebrity Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown on CNN has covered a lot of territory, including a recent surprise interview with Barack Obama over noodles in Hanoi. More than 15 years after his best-selling memoir Kitchen Confidential gutted New York's gastronomical underbelly, the former junkie and chef continues to find new ways to piss off nearly everone.

Q: You're a liberal. What should liberals be critiquing their own side for?

A: There's just so much. I hate the term political correctness, the way in which speech that is found to be unpleasant or offensive is often banned from universities. Which is exactly where speech that is potentially hurtful and offensive should be heard.

The way we demonize comedians for use of language or terminology is unspeakable. Because that's exactly what comedians should be doing, offending and upsetting people. Comedy is there, like art, to make people uncomfortable and challenge their views and hopefully have a spirited yet civil argument. If you're a comedian whose bread and butter seems to be language, situations, and jokes that I find racist and offensive, I won't buy tickets to your show or watch you on TV. I will not support you. If people ask me what I think, I will say you suck and that I think you are racist and offensive. But I'm not going to try to put you out of work. I'm not going to start a boycott, or a hashtag, looking to get you driven out of the business.

The self-congratulatory tone of the privileged left-just repeating and repeating and repeating the outrages of the opposition-this does not win hearts and minds. It doesn't change anyone's opinions. It only solidifies them and makes things worse for all of us. We should be breaking bread with each other and finding common ground whenever possible. I fear that is not at all what we've done.

Q: You recently gave a feisty response to a long-winded San Francisco animal-rights protester who was going after you about eating meat. You said...

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